The Creative Industries Federation manifesto for the UK’s upcoming general election

The Creative Industries Federation has published a manifesto for all UK political parties ahead of the general election, recommending how to involve the sector in the country’s future and ensure its security. Proposing ten actions for the government to undertake, the manifesto highlights the most important considerations for ensuring the growth and impact of the creative industries in Britain.

“The UK’s creative industries are key to driving growth in a post-Brexit Britain,” it states. “The sector is the fastest growing part of the UK’s economy, contributing £87bn in GVA (gross value added to the economy). It returns four times the GVA of the automotive industry, six times as much as life sciences and nearly ten times that of aerospace. Between 2011–2015, it created three times more jobs than the economy as a whole.

“The UK is the third-largest exporter of cultural goods and services in the world – just behind China and the US. However, as other countries are now prioritising the sector, we cannot take our global pre-eminence for granted.”

The manifesto statements include:

Set up a creative skills commission.
The creative industries face significant skills shortages because we have failed to prepare young people in education and training. The commission would report within six months on practical measures to defuse the skills time bomb and better equip the next generation for 21st Century life.

Ensure that the creative industries and arts are a priority sector in Brexit negotiations.
Federation members were overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU for very practical reasons. The sector will be particularly vulnerable if we do not get right all the key issues in negotiations, among them movement of talent and intellectual property.

Launch a creative careers campaign.
Careers guidance must be transformed. Government should lead on a creative careers campaign to correct inadequate information about potential careers in the creative industries and open up access to those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Better, inspirational advice would go some way towards solving the skills crisis in the creative industries and in others that rely heavily on creative skills, such as manufacturing.

Introduce creative enterprise zones.
The success of the creative industries can and must be harnessed to deliver growth and regeneration across the UK. Government should extend the roll-out of enterprise zones to cover the creative industries. Areas that axe or severely reduce arts funding would be ineligible.

Double the number of creative companies that export by the end of the next Parliament.
Trade strategies are currently geared toward larger enterprises, whereas the creative industries are primarily made up of small and micro businesses. The sector accounted for 9% of total exports of services from the UK in 2014, valued at £20bn – an underestimate. With the right support, exports could be far higher, offering economic stability to a post-Brexit Britain.

Three dimensional renders are featuring more and more within everyday design, from adverts for cars to Ikea using 3D tools to computer generate its catalogue. As the ability to integrate 3D objects not only becomes easier but more realistic, it is understandable that graphic designers are eager to learn how they can get involved, to save money on mock ups and take a project that extra mile.

In the two years since Adobe Stock was rolled out, the Adobe archive has grown to an astounding 90 million+ assets, meaning that for any creative project you’re working on, Adobe can provide high quality photos, videos, graphics and illustrations.

“I’ve always been teaching and a part of education,” comments Dutch designer Jurgen Bey. “It’s the common place, it’s where all knowledge is shared. And it’s also the place where the future always exists. If you have students no matter how bad it goes with life or reality.” Such tenacious optimism for the future has illuminated Jurgen’s dual career as an influential designer and educator. Jurgen leads Studio Makkink & Bey in Rotterdam which works in applied art and public space projects, and he is also the director of the Sandberg Institute, the postgraduate program of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

Founded in 1997 by Colette Roussaux, cult Parisian store Colette has – in its two decade lifetime – established itself as one of the world’s most influential hubs for compelling, cutting-edge fashion and design. With Colette’s daughter Sarah Andelman working as creative director it also became a leading light in illustration and graphic art, giving a platform to the creative industry’s renowned innovators and creators. So, when last week the store posted a statement on Instagram saying “all good things must come to an end” and it would be closing its doors on 20 December 2017, there was an outpouring of love, support and reminiscences from across the industry.

At the end of the academic year, graduates from a breadth of courses at Central Saint Martins, UAL showcase their work to the creative industries in an impressive pair of degree shows. Global marketing communications agency MullenLowe Group sees this as an opportunity to invest in the university’s emerging talent, by sponsoring the degree shows and running the MullenLowe NOVA Awards, now in its seventh year.

“I always say that I don’t have big ideas, I just have lots of little ones that fill the same amount of time,” explains London artist Kate Moross. “I much prefer to take things a little bit at a time and change things that way. I think change is lots of small steps, not necessarily always the big things.” This small-idea ethos has helped Kate forge a genre-defying career as a graphic artist: she founded the London design agency Studio Moross in 2012, started the vinyl label Isomorph Records, and penned the DIY guide Make Your Own Luck. Her work has spanned from music videos to designing the tour visuals for One Direction. “I very much don’t conform to what most people think of what a graphic designer would be,” Kate confesses.